Bill Gates will step down in 2008

Bill Gates announced Thursday that as of July 2008 he transition out of a day-to-day role at the company.

He will work part time for Microsoft and full time for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundations works on global health and education issues.

Gates was never comfortable with the success, recognition and money.

Apple lowers iPod Nano and other pricing in the UK

Apple has cut prices by £10 on all three nano models—the 1GB nano now costs £99, the 2GB model is £129 and the 4GB nano is £169

iPod HiFi was dropped from £249 to £229

iMac prices were also lowered £50-£100 and Mac Minis were dropped £50

Correction on Canadian 30GB iPod price. I said $249 CAN, it should have been $349 CND.

New iPods you won't touch

This is a strange rumor

According to one of Apple's Asian manufacturing partner, Hon Hai Precision, Apple getting set to introduce an iPod with “none-touch" technology.

iPod spoken interface patent. New Nike iPod product.

The company owns the Foxconn iPod factories, which were recently accused of labour abuse with sweatshop like conditions in "iPod Cities".

Apple responded saying they plan to investigate

Interestingly analysts have recently lowers estimates on iPod sales by as much as 12% so new models may be right on time.

Is Apple going to make an Ultra-portable?

Benjamin Reitzes of UBS Research Institute seems to think Apple is readying an Ultra Porable Mac (UPM) for MacWorld in 2007. Newton?

No optical drive, no keyboard. Inkwell is good, but come on.

Didn't we have that already? 12" PowerBook and 12" iBook

The machines would ues NAND flash memory

DigitTimes claimed Apple would use NAND earlier this year.

Intel "Robson cache technology" uses FLASH memory instead of HD for startup and frequently used Apps. Better battery life and near instant boot times.

Boston may be getting the next Apple Flagship store

After being denied appoval earlier this year to build a three story retail location in Boston’s Back Bay, Apple was given the go ahead to destroy an existing building at 815 Boylston Street to make way for a new building.

Apple submitted a new design that was not given approval, but the Back Bay Architectural Commission said they liked Apple's direction and gave approval to the demo.

The Boston Globe reports that Apple's design includes a glass facade with stainless steel columns, a spiral staircase and a skylight with a green roof.

Users reporting stains on White MacBooks

There are several reports of stains appearing in the hand rest area of many new white MacBooks.

MacBook Stains

I have slight discoloration on my iBook G4 but after 3 years

These look like they could be caused by heat and not dirt or wear

Some reports say the stains can be cleaned off with a non-acetone nail polish remover. Use clear, or blue colored non-acetone nail polish remover, other colors wil tint the plastic. DO NOT use acetone or isopropyl alcohol on your Mac.

How to clean your Mac

Water. Damp soft cloth.

iKlear Apple Polish

Response to Norway and EU iPod/iTunes policies

Adam pointed out a good article on the Financial Times site

FInancial Times Article

"Walled Gardens" are not new. Razors, Inkjet printers.

Cheap printers result from the "walled garden" aproach.

Walled gardens are more damaging to consumers when they need to share. Microsoft Office.

No one is forced to use iTunes or an iPod simply because Apple is the big player

Verizon and VCast, my new RAZR phone has diabled firmware.

Other online services don't support Macs or iPods.

iPods play other formats, MP3, AIFF, WAV, etc.

Apple created a DRM model and a consumer experience that works for consumers and the Record labels.

You can burn a CD with Apples DRM and then convert into any format you wish.

Clear up that ELUA issues are not limited to Apple.

App for helping manage multiple iWeb sites

Several listeners pointed out iWebSites from

iWebSites

Basically creates new Domain.sites packages and renames old ones. You can then switch which site is the defualt one.

Additional tools for removing OS X Languages

Can seriously reduce the amount of used hard drive space. Can easily be 1GB of localization files.

Some tools in addition to doing a custom OS X install

Monolingual, free (open source)

Monolingual

TinkerTool System, maintainece and enable other "hidden"7.00€

TinkerTool System

DeLocalizer (has not been tested with 10.3 or greater)

DeLocalizer

How to find special charater and bring back KeyCaps

Use the International system preferences and click Input Menu

Turn on Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer (OS X KeyCaps). Adds flag to menu bar and then you can access:

Character Palette, easy access to Currency symbols, Math symbols, stars, Greek symbols, Braille Patterns, etc.

Keyboard Viewer, just like KeyCaps. Lets you see what key combinations give which characters for a given font. For example Option +8 for a bullet (•).

PopChar X also provides easy access by adding a little icon in the left corner of the menubar next to the Apple logo. ($29.99 USD)

PopChar X

Turn your spare change into iTunes

Listener Chris pointed out

In the US and the UK CoinStar has machines to count your spare change and turn in for cash. They have machines in Canada, but couldn't tell if Gift Cards are an option there

www.coinstar.com

Now you can by-pass their fees and get GiftCards for Amazon, Borders Books, Starbucks and iTunes.

You can also donate your change. March of Dimes, Red Cross, Unicef and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

How to display which iPhotos are in which Albums

Listener Johnathan needs to be able to see from the Library whch photos have been placed in which albums.

You can use a Smart Album to sort out which images are not in an Album

Any other thoughts let us know.